North Atlantic Skyline - - Photographs from the west of Ireland (Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Roscommon and even Leitrim)

Illumination

So much for the season of goodwill. Cardinal Brady castigated RTE for refusing to play a Christmas advert for Veritas, the religious publisher, that included a reference to the crib [Veritas shops sell cribs for Xmas], - the cardinal described it as political correctness gone mad. Except that it wasn't. RTE had asked Veritas to clear the advert with the Broadcast Commission beforehand , but Veritas didn't bother. They just resubmitted the ad with the word crib omitted. And when Irish Catholic Bishops described the decision as an affront to Christians, maybe they could have pointed out that the crib is omitted from another place too - the Bible.

And when the Cardinal had a pop at astrology, fortune-telling and the like as the new Irish superstition, I wonder what he thought of an older one - the belief that the appearance of a star in the sky would fulfil an ancient prophesy, and all that.

The Irish have been celebrating the passage of midwinter for millenia, but for as nearly long as Christianity has been in Ireland, Clonmacnoise has been a beacon of spirituality. Located along the ancient natural causeway of an esker that cuts through the midland bogs, and overlooking the banks of the Shannon, Clonmacnoise enjoys almost the same solitude today as it did 1500 years ago.

I was driving to work early last week through Ballinasloe when the sign for Clonmacnoise caught my eye. Sod it, I thought, no one ever died wishing they'd spent more time in the office - I swung the car south and headed for the Shannon. Just before the shortest day of the year, marking the very depth of winter, the beams of the rising sun illuminate the round towers. The orange light slowly creeping down the buildings, marking the advance of the day. There is a national school near the site, and I could hear the children chattering as they readied for the day. Great learning and scholarship has taken place on this site since the middle of the sixth century - those kids have a lot to live up to.

Whatever you believe in, have a good holiday.